NYU Fellow Nir Rosen Resigns After Bashing Lara Logan on Twitter

By DNAinfo Staff on February 16, 2011 11:19am | Updated on February 17, 2011 6:25am

CBS news chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan at The 33rd Annual American Women in Radio & Television's Gracie Allen Awards on May 28, 2008.View Full Caption

Joe Corrigan/Getty Images

By Mariel S. Clark

DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — A New York University fellow and journalist resigned and apologized Wednesday after making remarks on Twitter about the attack and sexual assault of CBS correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt.

NirRosen, a fellow at NYU's Center for Law and Security, who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East, took to Twitter Tuesday to rant about the incident.

"[L]ara logan had to outdo anderson. Where was her buddy mccrystal?" he reportedly tweeted, in an apparent reference to a recent attack on CNN's Anderson Cooper where the reporter was punched in the head as he covered demonstrations in Egypt.

On Feb. 11, Logan, a "60 Minutes" correspondent, was in Cairo's Tahrir Square covering the elation after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, according to CBS.

After being surrounded by a mob of more than 200 people, Logan was separated from her crew and suffered a "brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating" before being saved by Egyptian soldiers and a group of women, the network reported.

As others criticized Rosen for his comments he reportedly tweeted, "yes yes its wrong what happened to her. of course. i dont support that but, it would have been funny if it happened to anderson too."

Those tweets and several others have since been deleted.

Rosen went on to tweet a series of updates in which he first defended his comments:

"jesuschrist, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger," he said via Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

Just a few minutes later he tweeted, "i apologize for being insensitive, its always wrong, thats obvious, but i'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she will get."

Reaction to Nir's comments was swift and emotional.

"Nir Rosen is disgusting," tweeted @cindysku.

"Nir Rosen is one sick a--hole - rolls his eyes at a woman beat and sexually assaulted...what an a--," said @Brytani_Fla.

By Wednesday morning, Rosen was more contrite.

"I know that in a matter of seconds with a thoughtless joke, I brought shame upon myself and my family and added insult to Ms. Logan's injury," he tweeted. "I feel I should make one last statement. I offer my deepest apologies to Ms. Logan, her friends and her family. I never meant to hurt anyone."

NYU's Center For Law and Security issued a statement saying Rosen had "crossed the line" with his "unacceptable" remarks, and stepped down.

"He has apologized, withdrawn his remarks, and submitted his resignation as a fellow, which I have accepted," Karen Greenberg, the center's executive director, said in a statement. "However, this in no way compensates for the harm his comments have inflicted. We are all horrified by what happened to Ms. Logan, and our thoughts are with her during this difficult time."

After the attack, Logan flew home to the US and is recovering at home, according to CBS.

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